HAND APPRECIATION 101

good hands are hard to find but you know them

when you see them. they aren’t so much hands

as they are messages.

what will you say that hasn’t already been said?

me, I’d like to nibble on the bulge

below your thumb

& eat a few of your quotation marks.

when you tap the bar for another beer, I grow woozy.

I like strong hands

with veins that branch like bronchi. how I’d like to breathe you in, absorb you

into my bloodstream.

you with the nice inviting hands.

you with the hands of a sensitive sailor.

you with the fuck me just right hands.

I could watch you pick things up & put them down forever.

hot hot hot, says my brain when you lick your finger

to flip a page. 

what will you say that hasn’t already been said?

it was a tiny trick of a question—everything has already been said,

but everything hasn’t already been held.

note: our baby in his first moments,

among other new, beautiful things.

your hands have a quiet confidence. a flow. I want to surf on your hands.

I want to lay down on this bar & pretend I am paddling out to greet your hands.

your hands, both under me & before me.

everywhere hands.

the sky bleeds all over your everywhere hands.

the tide asks for your everywhere hand.

but who said anything about asking? I never got down

on one knee, never took your message in mine.

your hands are my hands. your blood my blood. 

your hands. everywhere. all at once.

your hands pressed against my chest, holding me shut.

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Cover photo by Bernadetta Watts